First up: Top 5 books I have recently read. These are not necessarily new books to me, in fact one of them is an old favorite. Also, a few of these (Read: All of them) i have listened to in audio form while I was at work instead of actually reading the book. *SHAMELESS PLUG WARNING* Audible.com is a website that offers audio books for download to your smart phone type thingys so you can easily listen to them whenever. I use it all the time.
Number 5: "Redshirts" By John Scalzi, read by Wil Wheaton.
Number 4: "Snow Crash" By Neal Stephenson, read by Johnathan Davis. Not the guy from Korn. Some other guy.
Number 3: "Tough Shit" by Kevin Smith read by Kevin Smith.
Number 2: "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" by Douglas Addams. read by Stephen Fry. This one is the classic that i was talking about above. So far all of the other books were first time reads (or listens i guess).
Number 1, with a bullet: "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton.
"Ready Player One" is awesome. I am so glad that i picked it up. It follows the story of Wade Watts a.k.a.Parzival (sic), who spends his free time searching for a legendary easter egg in a fully subversive VR game called "The Oasis". In the first chapter of the book you find out that the recently deceased creator of "The Oasis" has left his entire inheritance and controlling stake of "The Oasis" and it's parent company GSS hidden somewhere in the game's immensely huge universe. The novel, and the search for the egg itself, are chock full of video game, 80s pop culture, science fiction, and musical references. Seriously, go here and check out the full list of things referenced in the book.
Next: Top 5 Albums I have listened to this week. Besides listening to audio books at work, I also listen to music. *SHAMELESS PLUG WARNING* I use Spotify.com to listen to whatever I want at work. They have a HUGE streaming music library that you can use with your smart phone if you are a premium member. The only downside: not enough underground metal. Some of the smaller metal labels do not offer their music to spotify for streaming, which makes Jeff sad. And of course, bands like Metallica, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin also do not offer their music. But hey, I'll pay ten bucks a month for everything else on the planet.
Number 5: "Periphery II: This Time, It's Personal" by Periphery
Number 4: "Pinkerton Special Edition" by Weezer
Number 3: "A Night At The Opera" by Queen
Number 2: "Ghosts I-IV" By Nine Inch Nails. Some of the tracks from this album were modified and used for the Social Network soundtrack. Atticus Ross collaborated with Trent Reznor on this album. Good music to work to.
Number 1, with a bullet: "Scurrilous" "Fortress" and "Kezia" by Protest the Hero.
CAUTION: PROGRESSIVE HEAVY METAL! LISTEN AT HIGH VOLUMES ONLY!
Sweet 'stache.
I grouped all three of these records together because i can. So there. Protest the Hero are one of my favorite bands, and i love all of their records. They write very complex, very technically advanced songs. They also rock your face off live. I have never seen a band play more proficiently live (maybe one, and that was Periphery. I just talked about them up there.) Their singer Rody has an amazing voice, and he uses it like an instrument. Instead of just growling and screaming or just plain singing, he mixes all of his abilities into a heavy dose of jazzy, growling, crooning, screamy (not a word), vocals. I picked this video because who can say no to technically advanced odd time signature prog metal while the band is hopping down the street like a bunch of idiots? Not me, that's who.
Next up: Top 5 Podcasts. Okay, so by now it is obvious that i consume a massive amount of media each week while sitting at my work bench. Podcasts, for those of you who are uninitiated, are self produced recordings of conversations, interviews, and discussions that you can listen to. It's kind of like talk radio, but for very specific audiences, and hosted by experts/actors/comedians. Hard to explain, but very cool.
Number 5: "How did this get made?" hosted by Paul Sheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Dianne Raphael. They discuss terrible movies. I mean really terrible. Some of the movies featured: The Room, Batman and Robin, Jaws 4, and Judge Dredd. Not all of these are un-enjoyable, but all of them are terrible.
Number 4: "The Nerdist" Hosted by Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray and Matt Mira. They feature interviews with all sorts of people from many different backgrounds. Actors, comedians, scientists, and the like. They mostly focus on things that people can nerd out about. Very funny, and very cool to see so many different guests.
Number 3: "Good Job Brain" hosted by Karen, Colin, Dana, and Chris, a bar trivia team. A weekly bar trivia themed podcast featuring quizzes, fun facts, obscure knowledge, and other fun topics. All around a fun listen, and right up my alley.
Number 2: "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" hosted by Peter Sagel and Carl Kasell. Wait Wait is a weekly NPR news quiz. They record most weeks out of Chicago, and they feature panelists like Paula Poundstone, Mo Rocca, Roy Blount Jr. and Tom Bodett. They basically go over the weeks most interesting news stories and have a good laugh while they are at it.
Number 1, with a bullet: "Hollywood Babble on" Hosted by Ralph Garman.
Bigger than Liam Neeson's cock.
If you are unfamiliar with the work of Kevin Smith, i should at least warn you, he uses a lot of naughty words. So listen at your own risk. Kev Smith and Ralph Garman go over the weeks entertainment news, celebrity gossip and geek news. They talk about upcoming movies that will suck, shit that should not be (very obvious continuity goofs, background oddities, and equipment goofs in very popular movies), Hollywood helpers (Actors and other famous people who have done a good deed that week), and of course, Liam Neeson's cock. They end every show with a segment about Liam Neeson's mythically large member. I know that sounds weird, but it is really funny. For example: Liam Neeson's cock is soooo big...(How big is it?) it's the reason Apple introduced the panoramic camera on the iPhone 5... Okay, so maybe it doesn't read that well, but stupid dick and fart jokes make the day go by so fast at work. And if there is anything Kevin Smith is good at, it is stupid dick and fart jokes.
So there you go. That is what i listen to all day while i am re-padding your clarinets and replacing your flute's head joint cork *SHAMELESS PLUG WARNING* at the beautiful new Quinlan and Fabish location in Bur Ridge, Illinois. Quinlan and Fabish, your trusted partner in music education since 1959.
-J.
No comments:
Post a Comment